


Pierrot Triste

by Miraphina Atherton (mew_tsubaki)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Battle of Hogwarts, F/M, One-Sided Relationship, cameos from others - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-09-26 02:58:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9859052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mew_tsubaki/pseuds/Miraphina%20Atherton
Summary: He fights by her side, he watches her laugh, he sees her cry, he falls deeper for her. Seamus is a "good guy," that's all. *Slightly AU for the final battle; one-sided Seamulina.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The Harry Potter characters belong to J.K. Rowling, not to me. Done for a quote prompt. Read, review, and enjoy! *Also, this coincides with the oneshot, "Showtime Courage," a Dean Thomas/Astoria Greengrass piece (which is a little lighter than this one).

> _"You learn to like someone when you find out what makes them laugh, but you can never truly love someone until you find out what makes them cry." —Unknown_

Good Merlin, he wished someone would shut her up.

"And then that damn Death Eater tried to _singe my hair off_!" snarled Lavender Brown.

Seamus Finnigan rolled his eyes while Parvati Patil sighed. They were fighting for their lives and possibly for all those who weren't pureblood in the Wizarding World—including their four selves—and of course Lavender would find it appropriate to complain about _almost_ losing her hair. Well, at least it was a bit of normalcy amidst the battles surrounding them.

Padma, Parvati's twin, shot Lavender a look, clearly not in a good mood right now. Then again, who was? "We've scarier things to worry about, Lavender. Could you focus a little?"

Lavender growled at the girl as the group headed up to the Astronomy Tower. She gripped the railing and swung herself up several steps ahead of the others. "I _am_ focused, Padma. Trust me—you want me this way. This way, I'll duel any and every sodding Death Eater that crosses my path."

"Lav, we need to secure the tower first, that way any reinforcements can arrive," Parvati stated. Her best mate caught up to the blonde. "I mean that—we need to take care of the tower first."

"Then there better be more Death Eaters there!"

"Girls! Ca'm down!" Seamus scolded. He saw a beam of orange light and pulled Lavender back at just the right moment. The four of them were quiet for a moment. " _That_ was anuther spell meant ter singe yer 'air off. Do us all a favor: Learn ter avoid it."

The group carefully made their way up the rest of the staircase, sending off only a few counters every few minutes. When they finally reached the top, they were greeted by two Death Eaters.

"Crabbe, you take two. I'll get the others," one said to the other, taller one.

Seamus cursed under his breath as Crabbe—whom he realized was none other than Vincent Crabbe's father—lurched towards him and Parvati. Parvati and he began dueling with Crabbe, which was no small feat. The older wizard had time and experience on them. They had Dueling Club. Oh, and Dumbledore's Army, but still.

Padma and Lavender had their hands full with the other Dark Wizard. He was very quick with his own spells, and Padma and Lavender were being cornered near the edge. Though there was a handrail, one rightly aimed spell could send them over easily. But Seamus had his hands full barely keeping Crabbe back.

Some help arrived in the form of four certain Hogwarts graduates. Oliver Wood, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, and Angelina Johnson—all former members of Gryffindor's Quidditch team landed in some semblance of maroon and gold glory as they dropped off their brooms and caught the two Death Eaters off-guard. Oliver and Katie joined Padma and Lavender, and Alicia and Angelina fought with Parvati and Seamus.

"I see you lot have held your own," Angelina stated roughly to Seamus.

He frowned, averting his eyes. He had to stay focused. However… Seamus sighed and copied Ginny's trademark spell, the Bat-Bogey Hex. It was deflected, though. No surprise there. Seamus couldn't focus when Angelina was around. Nothing like a pretty girl to distract a boy.

Angelina chuckled to herself. "But really. You guys are good. Have you seen anyone else?"

"I saw Dean before we came up 'ere," Seamus answered. "'Aven't seen much but these jerks, though."

She nodded and dodged a Jinx. "These guys _won't_ win, though!" She cast a nasty Hex, and Crabbe burst out in boils. The boils bubbled and popped like blobs of lava, and Angelina actually found it funny enough to laugh. So did Seamus and Alicia.

"Where did you learn _that_ one?" Alicia asked as Crabbe scrambled to try and stop the spell.

Angelina chuckled and beamed. "Fred, of course."

Seamus' laughter died in his throat. Of course. Fred Weasley. Sure, Angelina was older than him, but he really wished the girl would set her sight on a wizard other than that Weasley twin. Seamus was plenty sure he could make her laugh as hard and smile as much.

Really, though, as the battle raged on and the group claimed the Astronomy Tower and split to send some back downstairs to help, all that plagued Seamus' mind was his Hogwarts life. He recalled all the years he'd been there. He'd almost finished his hellish seventh year, despite the Ministry–Voldemort takeover. But he played certain scenes in his mind's eye.

He recalled his first year. He'd been nothing but a preteen. He'd instantly clicked with Dean Thomas, and they'd been best mates ever since. He never paid much attention to the other students, even the others in Gryffindor with him. Well, he couldn't get around his curiosity over _the_ Harry Potter and then his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger when the end of the year rolled around and the trio were revealed as having fought the semi-resurrected Dark Lord.

Things changed second year, probably because of the onset of…ahem, puberty. Anyway, Seamus and Dean had been watching a Quidditch match. Gryffindor had been playing, but—to this day, Seamus still didn't remember who they'd opposed that day, because Dean had decided to point out to him a very pretty dark-haired, dark-skinned, dark-eyed beauty.

That was when Seamus had developed a crush on Angelina Johnson.

Not that he'd ever entertained the idea of ever trying things. No, he was too young for that stuff. Besides, there were cooler things, like brooms and Quidditch team stats. Yeah, those stats. One had to keep an eye on them all the time. They were constantly changing. Girls? Girls didn't change.

Ha. Then he'd dragged through third year, watching Angelina grow prettier and prettier and—she was _not_ like the other girls.

Merlin knew—fourth year landed with the Yule Ball, and Angelina was right there. Maybe Seamus could finally make a move. Maybe if she danced with him, things could change between them, things could move forward. Not as though anything had ever developed. Yes, they were schoolmates. Yes, they were Housemates. They could be considered friends through Harry and the gang and through Quidditch, but that was where their relations ended.

And any chances of them starting ended with Fred asking Angelina out to the Yule Ball, with her accepting.

Seamus dodged… _something_ as he, Parvati, Angelina, and Alicia made it downstairs. They were in the large hallway outside the Great Hall now. Seamus wondered what time it was. It seemed as though the sun would be up soon, judging by the early morning glow starting to overtake the dark of night.

"Do you know where anyone was headed?" Angelina asked him. She turned her back to his as they fought off two more Dark Wizards.

The Irish boy frowned. "No! I dunno. Things got really out of 'and when 'Arry came back an' there was talk of 'Orcruxes and th' Carrows."

"I saw Lee earlier before I joined you," Parvati piped up. She turned to the other two girls. "He said Harry wanted him and the twins to protect the school's secret passageways."

"Oh, the twins will be fine!" Angelina smiled proudly. "And with Lee with them, they'll probably just test some new Wheezes on the Death Eaters."

"They _would_ do that!" Alicia added.

Conversation grew quiet as the battle once again overtook as the cynosure of the evening. Brilliant and deadly flashes of light soared above their heads, a few darting between the lithe bodies. A boom sounded somewhere off to the side, opposite from where they'd entered, but the group had the battle at hand to worry about. It was as if the entire Wizarding World had converged on Hogwarts.

At one point, Seamus threw a Jinx at a Death Eater and had to drag Angelina to the side so she missed the counter. Now they were in the Great Hall, and they were lucky the wizard hadn't followed them inside. "You all right?" Seamus asked.

Angelina gripped his arm. "Y-Yeah… Thanks for that."

"Urm, Angelina… I…" He sighed. "I wanted ter—"

"Hold on. Is that—? Oh, my…"

Her interruption of his possible albeit ill-timed confession distracted him. He turned his attention to where her gaze landed. There, in the middle of the debris and rubble of the Great Hall, was none other than Voldemort himself. He was circling the floor opposite Harry.

"Holy shit, Harry…," Angelina cursed under her breath. She blanched at the site of the Dark Lord.

Seamus tentatively rested a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. Though she couldn't rip her eyes from the duel, her hand covered his and squeezed back. She was as scared as any of them.

The Irish lad took the opportunity to scan the edge of the crowd. He spotted Dean with some Slytherin girl a little ways away, but it wasn't as if he could leave and go to his best mate. He… He was rooted to the spot, too. And things got a lot more interesting once Harry began trading spells with Voldemort.

Beams of green and red streaked across the hall. Sometimes they crossed paths; sometimes they dodged and missed completely. What was apparent, though, was that Harry had to be the one to fight the Dark Lord. No one would or could be as evenly matched.

"Oh, my Godric!" the black witch gasped when Harry came a _little_ too close to being hit by the Killing Curse.

"It's okay," Seamus stated. "This is 'Arry. 'E'll be fine. 'E always 'as been and always will be. I'm sure of it."

Harry and Voldemort began yelling, and there was a large flash of light when both Voldemort's Killing Curse and Harry's Expelliarmus when off at the same time. "I can't look!" Angelina squeaked. She turned in towards Seamus' shoulder, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, hugging her close.

He was quiet. He couldn't believe it. "An-Angelina… 'E-'E's…"

"Is Harry all right? Is he okay?"

Seamus released a nervous, relieved laugh. "Fine. But Voldy isn't."

Angelina turned her head back around and gaped at the body on the floor. "No! How?!"

"Spell backfired. Reminds me of Ron and 'is broken wand. Voldemort killed 'imself."

The cheers echoed off the remains of the Great Hall and Hogwarts castle. After a while—maybe too quickly—the cheers grew subdued as reality struck everyone and the body count was totaled. Truly, it couldn't be totaled right away. There were… There were far too many bodies for that.

Seamus and Angelina walked around. Seamus saw Dean head outside with the Slytherin girl, but he didn't feel the need to go after his mate right then. Besides, he had Angelina with him at the moment. "Where do you want ter go?"

"I want to go find Fred," she stated a little shakily. They headed back to where they came outside the hall, and she looked left and right. "He should be coming back with the others now, I think."

Though it killed him… "I'll help you look fer 'im," Seamus offered.

She gave him a sweet grin. "Thanks. You're a good guy, Seamus."

"Yeah."

They searched the halls for a while, but no twin or Lee Jordan popped out of any of the secret entryways they knew. Seamus watched Angelina grow antsy. It was obvious she had a bad feeling developing in the pit of her stomach, too.

"Let's go back," he suggested, offering her his hand. "They probably returned ter th' rest of th' Weasleys by now. And Lee'll be wherever Fred and George are."

"Yeah…," she replied. She took his hand, and they made their way back, though somewhat slowly this time. There was a hint of uneasiness in her tone.

Back in the Great Hall, the cheers were gone. Wails of sorrow and grief and pain now echoed, their resonance squeezing the hearts of all who heard them. Off to the side, near the new hole in the Great Hall that was twice the size of Hagrid, Angelina and Seamus spotted a mass of red hair. Most of their heads were bowed.

"No," she rasped. She was so quiet that Seamus hadn't heard her at first. He'd only stopped when she pulled on his hand. He'd kept going, so she'd nearly toppled him by yanking him back.

Seamus darted his eyes between the Weasleys and Angelina. He had a bad feeling he knew someone was gone, too. Regardless… "Angelina, we should go see them."

She shook her head, tears pooling in her eyes, but she didn't cry. "No. No, let's go back. I don't need to see that. They don't need me there. It's not my place—"

"Ange!" Seamus shook her to try and snap her back to reality. "Ange, you need ter see them. You need ter be wit' them, too."

The witch pursed her lips, looking up at him just a little bit. He was finally a few inches taller than her now… Angelina hung her head, took several breaths, and shyly nodded. "…okay."

Seamus walked with her to the Weasley family. The eldest brother, Bill, was crying quietly with his wife, Fleur. Charlie stood off to the side with their parents, Molly and Arthur. Molly was a wreck; she was crying so hard that she could barely breathe. Her face was redder than her hair.

Ginny and Ron were ashen white. Ginny cried quietly like Bill, while tears just ran down Ron's cheeks. Ron was definitely too shocked to believe what was before him.

George… Yes, it was _George_ bawling like a little witch with Percy. Judging by the interaction between the two, the third-eldest Weasley brother was no longer "Percy the Prat."

Which meant that the body on the floor was—

" _ **NOOOOO**_!"

Angelina's heart-wrenching scream was awful. She yanked her hand out of Seamus' grasp. She ran the rest of the small distance to Fred's frozen body and collapsed to her knees by it. Seamus didn't know what to say.

" _Noooo_!" she cried. " _NO! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no_!" She pounded the floor with her fists. George put his head near hers, and they sobbed together. Her cries pierced Seamus so badly. " _Nooo_ …"

Seamus had never seen someone so broken. There was so much, too much anguish in her eyes and her face that he had to look away. He felt like the odd one out—the Weasleys there, Fred's girlfriend right there with them. Seamus? He had Dean…who was nowhere to be found.

The Irish wizard trudged to the edge of the Great Hall and looked out over the hill. The Forbidden Forest, the Black Lake, the mountain range beyond—it was all placid and fine. The defilement of war had not gone beyond castle grounds, had not gone beyond the innermost vulnerable part of the human soul, laying them all out for the rest to see and laugh at and stomp into the cold, stone ground.

And all he could think about was the broken witch inside, crying her heart out. She probably would never be whole or completely sane again.

Though it took much cajoling, Seamus eventually forced himself back inside. He returned to where the Weasley family remained. Angelina was there, too, of course, but now it was obvious that the family and family alone needed time to grieve. She was the only one still hovering over his body.

Despite the awkwardness, Seamus went over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Shh, shh," he cooed. "C'mon, Ange. Get up. Give th' family a moment."

All she could reply with was another shuddering sob.

"Angelina," he urged, a little more stern. "Come on. I'll stay wit' you, but come on."

Finally, she stood up with his help. He led her away, and Mr. Weasley gave him a thankful little nod. Then Seamus returned his attention to the witch.

"'E-'E's gone, Angelina…," he murmured.

She snarled at him. "Don't you think I know that?!" she snapped. Her look softened at his hurt face, and she began blubbering again. "Oh, no, no, I'm sorry, Seamus, I just…" The tears seized her again, but she sobbed softly this time.

He led her to the green of the inner courtyard and settled with her by the side of the corridor. He made sure she didn't hit her head when she rested it against the stone. "It will be okay…"

"When?" she whispered.

"I dunno…"

She laughed darkly. "That's not a very good answer."

"But it will be. Eventually. Sometime."

Angelina looked at him and frowned. She tried to smile, but she could only frown. "'Sometime,'" she echoed. "When is 'sometime'?"

"I dunno…"

"Well, what _do_ you know?" It was a rhetorical question. She didn't want it answered, and she didn't even give him the chance. She turned her face to his shoulder and cried the rest of her bleeding heart out.

Seamus held her tighter than ever, keeping his mouth shut. Yes, she was hurt. She was crying right now, too. But he knew one thing: He didn't just like this woman. He was in love with Angelina Johnson. And he would wait for when her "sometime" came, because he'd be there for her. He'd be there with her until it arrived and he'd be there well after, if she would let him. But, for now, he held her.

**Author's Note:**

> ;_; I can't believe I did that! This was supposed to be AU Battle of Hogwarts, but… DX It kills me to read Fred as dead again and again, though George is my fav Weasley twin. However, I still think this story came out really well. I have grown very fond of the idea of Seamulina. "Pierrot Triste" is French for (technically) "sad sparrow." However, I took the other meaning of "pierrot"—the character who wears the frilly outfit in a pantomime and is similar to a clown. Therefore, the title is truly "Sad Clown." Makes this even sadder, huh? :')
> 
> Thanks for reading, and please review!
> 
> -mew-tsubaki :3
> 
> Thanks as always to Morghen for beta'ing! ;3
> 
> 2017 edit: I was a little worried about rereading this seven years later, but I think the angst in the end balances the early silliness. I like the comfort in hurt/comfort fics. :') I'm also cheering Seamus on in this one…!


End file.
